Doorway to Understanding...

The Searchers (1956)

The Searchers is a movie framed in doorways, from the first scene when Martha Edwards opens the front door of her cabin only to see the tiny figure of Ethan Edwards approaching in the distance, until the end of the film, when another cabin door closes, excluding Ethan Edwards, confirming him as an outsider. Notice how many times the director frames his scenes in doorways.

John Ford directed this masterpiece of filmmaking, starring the inimitable John Wayne, in the performance of a lifetime.

"The Searchers" is a tale of a man’s search for a missing niece, but it is more – it is a man’s search for himself, for the character that he knows is inside, but is unable to touch. In the end, he is able to see his character for what it is but never able to successfully tame it. The story shows the indomitable spirit of the man: Ethan has the courage to face his personal demons, but he is never able to fully overcome them. He will remain outside the family circle.

Wayne is an embittered ex-confederate soldier, back from three years of unexplained wandering following the South’s surrender. "I don’t believe in surrender myself", he tells questioning Rev. Clayton (Ward Bond), when he remarks that he didn’t see Ethan at the surrender.

Neighbors complaining of cattle rustling is the business that brings Rev. Clayton, also a Texas Ranger, to the Edwards spread. He deputizes Ethan and Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) and they go off to track the rustlers. Forty miles later, they find the cattle, slaughtered, with Indian sign all around. It’s a murder raid, Ethan declares, either our place or the Jorgenson’s. The cattle rustle was just a ruse to draw them off. The posse heads back to forestall the marauders, who they now know to be the dreaded "Comanch".

Ethan has already made his views clear concerning Indians, when he disparagingly called the 1/8 Cherokee Pawley a half-breed. The viewer has already seen the blue-eyed Comanche leader, "Scar", but the posse has to find that out through laborious searching for the missing children Lucy and Debbie, sole survivors of the Edwards family.

Through a few days of tracking the posse gets into the middle of three columns of Comanches. A thrilling fire fight takes place in which the Indians are driven off. But it is the end of the posse, most of the members drop out, leaving Ethan, Pawley, and the Jorgenson boy to continue the search.

Young Jorgenson is soon killed by the Indians as he rushes headlong into their camp, after Ethan tells him his sweetheart, Lucy, was killed.

Ethan’s search continues year by year with an unwavering intent that gets stronger as the years go by. Pawley is just along for the ride, but Ethan is dead serious. He lets Pawley know he intends to kill Debbie if he finds her. In my opinion it is not widely recognized in "The Searchers", that Ford's underlying message was an attack on racism. Chief Scar’s blue eyes are a hint of race mixing. Further, the kidnapping and (unspoken) rape of the girls was the main thing on Ethan’s mind. He did not want her to live after having been with an Indian. These are much tougher issues than the typical white hat - black hat Western deals with.

The doorways represent conventions and the outside represents the unorthodox. In keeping with Ford's theme, it is fitting that Ethan’s character is excluded from the family scene at the Jorgenson’s, while the Indian-defiled Debbie is allowed back in. In this way, Ford was able to put across an unpopular but important message (during a volatile period in U.S. history, the Eisenhower years) in a tremendous film that entertains on many levels, cinematography, characters, script, and score.

It is justly worth a five-star rating.